arthurracoon
The Cardinal Smiles
Bidwill reacting quickly to misconduct of players
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By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
So maybe longtime Arizona Cardinals running backs coach Johnny Roland, whose tenure with the team as a rugged tailback and talented assistant stretch all the way back to one of the franchise's former incarnations in St. Louis, was actually a tad overstated.
Queried recently about the off-field indiscretions of former tailback protégé Michael Pittman -- whose latest incident of alleged spousal abuse threatens his employment with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and his NFL career in general -- Roland acknowledged that he lost no sleep when the Cardinals opted not to retain their leading rusher after the 2001 season.
"Fool me once, shame on you," noted a straightforward and sage Roland. "Fool me twice, shame on me. But fool me a third time, well, shame on all of us."
Fool the Cardinals a third time?
Given the events of Tuesday, when Arizona backup fullback Dennis McKinley was summarily released just hours after he was arrested on suspicion he is the mastermind behind an international drug smuggling and trafficking ring, it appears Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill might suddenly be operating the franchise with a one-strike-and-you're-outta-here philosophy.
It might be hyperbole to suggest that Bidwill and his family, which has owned the team only since forever, have drawn an imaginary line in the desert sand surrounding Phoenix and have rendered their notion of quick and unflinching justice to any player who dares trespass on the wrong side of that demarcation.
After all, like most teams, the Cardinals surely have their quota of miscreants. Hey, you want to enjoy a roster stocked with nothing but choir boys on Sundays in the fall, head out to afternoon church services and not your local football stadium.
In recent dealings with players who have experienced off-field woes, though, Bidwill and the Cardinals have laid down the law. Just as significant, consciously or otherwise, the club has delivered a fairly obvious rejoinder: The Cardinals may not be a good team, but they are trying to be a team of mostly good guys.
Certainly it is an approach that would have the late Leo Durocher, long ago laid to rest, spinning in his grave like a rotisserie on hyper-speed. It is also an approach, truth be told, that we find somewhat admirable.
Twenty-five years into a career spent covering professional football, we haven't become so naïve or mush-brained to believe that the NFL isn't a league in which a lot of guys are gainfully employed because they got second or third chances. But it is Pollyannaish, too, to expect a zero percent recidivism rate.
And if Bidwill has decided to anoint himself as The Hangin' Judge, well, it's his right.
Yeah, go ahead and phone the folks in the white lab coats and toting straitjackets, because this humble correspondent defending Bidwill is akin to a lobotomy. Hell, for that matter, dial up the ACLU, too, because by semi-embracing the new Bidwillian tack, we figure to be viewed in many quarters as accomplices to some human rights violations. To which we say: Hey, too bad.
For years, the NFL has been a league all about due process when it comes to the off-field indiscretions of some of its rank-and-file, and with an attorney as commissioner, that is entirely appropriate. But there have been instances, and will continue to be, in which the process of swift termination is an overdue process, and Bidwill and the Cardinals of late have been party to several of them.
Nowhere in the unofficial guidebook for NFL owners does it stipulate that a team has to wait for a jury deliberation. A player enters the league of his own volition, subject to a lot of esoteric rules, structures that don't regulate working stiffs in the real world. And by so doing, there is implicit agreement, an unspoken pact to abide by the paradigm in place. Just as implicit are the owners' rights in some cases, and Bidwill has opted not to take advantage of the fact that he is not only the guy who signs the paychecks, but also who decides when to stop signing them.
“ Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But fool me a third time, well, shame on all of us. ”
—Cardinals running backs coach Johnny Roland
Dangerous territory? Oh, there are attorneys a lot wiser than yours truly who probably will contend Bidwill has moved into a perilous position. But the Cardinals owner is in the business of entertainment, has just asked residents of the Valley of the Sun to invest in a new stadium for him, and that connotes a public trust. One can't, in good conscience, dip into the coffers of taxpayers and ticket patrons without a measure of quid pro quo.
OK, know, the fans of Phoenix and the surrounding area would trust Bidwill and his team a lot more if the Cardinals won a few more games. Even given our stance on Bidwill and his recent punitive actions, we're not so off-kilter as to attempt to defend the product he puts on the field, and the results it has produced most seasons.
The Cardinals, for years, have done a lot of things wrong. Agents detest dealing with them because of the petty elements they bring to nearly every negotiation. The franchise has hardly endeared itself to the locals with an action recently brought against Arizona State for revenues the Cardinals contend are owed them by the university.
That said, it remains Bidwill's right to decide what constitutes a "Cardinals sin" abhorrent enough to merit banishment.
When he first moved the team to the desert, Bidwill was given to wearing string-ties (to go with his ubiquitous and inexplicable safari jacket), perhaps in an effort to demonstrate he was an Ol' West wannabe. He has since reverted to the trademark bow-tie. But lately the neckwear he has most frequently broken out, unfortunately, is a noose to put around the necks of Cardinals transgressors.
Perhaps, in the latest instance, McKinley will be found innocent. But we've got a few familial sources in government places who contend that there is substantial evidence to the contrary. (An aside here: Oh, that those sources had whispered this to us before the Tuesday arrest, and provided ESPN.com a jump on the story. But we will deal with that oversight, uh, internally, as they like to say).
There are sure to be skeptics who will point to the fact it was relatively easy for the Cards to dump McKinley, an afterthought of a player, a four-year veteran who had touched the ball only five times from scrimmage and whose only notable accomplishments came on the special teams units. It would be a contention worth consideration, but an erroneous one, especially based on the last few years.
The Cardinals organization chose not to attempt to retain its premier player, wideout David Boston, after the 2002 season. And that decision was made in large part because of Boston's DUI arrest and a history of off-field excesses. So now the San Diego Chargers, who signed Boston as an unrestricted free agent earlier this spring, will have to fret that they invested millions in a player one weak moment away from a one-year suspension.
With a history of spousal abuse and anger management problems that are undeniable, even if his latest incident is ignored, Pittman was a time bomb that the Cardinals deemed too combustible a risk. So even though he led the team in rushing in consecutive years, Arizona made no attempt to keep him after the 2001 campaign, and he exited to Tampa Bay as a free agent.
Last week, the Cardinals dealt another tailback, former first-round selection Thomas Jones, to the Bucs. The most obvious reason was that Jones was a certifiable bust, at least to this point in his career, and the team signed Emmitt Smith to be its starter. But there was also the incident last year in which Jones claimed to have fractured his hand on a counter in his home, while answering the telephone. Cardinals management, justifiably so, never quite bought into that tale.
So the record suggests the Cardinals, and more pointedly Bidwill, have neither played favorites nor been particularly discriminating when meting out justice.
For some league observers, including us, the image of Billy Bidwill as a tough guy and self-proclaimed enforcer is a difficult one to mentally digest. But with his recent moves, and a clear disinclination now to heed the usual excuses for dubious behavior, the Cards owner might never again be viewed with the Tweedle-dum perceptions that have marked his lengthy stewardship.
This latter-day Bidwill may suddenly be nobody's fool. And there may suddenly be no one who ever gets the opportunity to fool him a second time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
So maybe longtime Arizona Cardinals running backs coach Johnny Roland, whose tenure with the team as a rugged tailback and talented assistant stretch all the way back to one of the franchise's former incarnations in St. Louis, was actually a tad overstated.
Queried recently about the off-field indiscretions of former tailback protégé Michael Pittman -- whose latest incident of alleged spousal abuse threatens his employment with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and his NFL career in general -- Roland acknowledged that he lost no sleep when the Cardinals opted not to retain their leading rusher after the 2001 season.
"Fool me once, shame on you," noted a straightforward and sage Roland. "Fool me twice, shame on me. But fool me a third time, well, shame on all of us."
Fool the Cardinals a third time?
Given the events of Tuesday, when Arizona backup fullback Dennis McKinley was summarily released just hours after he was arrested on suspicion he is the mastermind behind an international drug smuggling and trafficking ring, it appears Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill might suddenly be operating the franchise with a one-strike-and-you're-outta-here philosophy.
It might be hyperbole to suggest that Bidwill and his family, which has owned the team only since forever, have drawn an imaginary line in the desert sand surrounding Phoenix and have rendered their notion of quick and unflinching justice to any player who dares trespass on the wrong side of that demarcation.
After all, like most teams, the Cardinals surely have their quota of miscreants. Hey, you want to enjoy a roster stocked with nothing but choir boys on Sundays in the fall, head out to afternoon church services and not your local football stadium.
In recent dealings with players who have experienced off-field woes, though, Bidwill and the Cardinals have laid down the law. Just as significant, consciously or otherwise, the club has delivered a fairly obvious rejoinder: The Cardinals may not be a good team, but they are trying to be a team of mostly good guys.
Certainly it is an approach that would have the late Leo Durocher, long ago laid to rest, spinning in his grave like a rotisserie on hyper-speed. It is also an approach, truth be told, that we find somewhat admirable.
Twenty-five years into a career spent covering professional football, we haven't become so naïve or mush-brained to believe that the NFL isn't a league in which a lot of guys are gainfully employed because they got second or third chances. But it is Pollyannaish, too, to expect a zero percent recidivism rate.
And if Bidwill has decided to anoint himself as The Hangin' Judge, well, it's his right.
Yeah, go ahead and phone the folks in the white lab coats and toting straitjackets, because this humble correspondent defending Bidwill is akin to a lobotomy. Hell, for that matter, dial up the ACLU, too, because by semi-embracing the new Bidwillian tack, we figure to be viewed in many quarters as accomplices to some human rights violations. To which we say: Hey, too bad.
For years, the NFL has been a league all about due process when it comes to the off-field indiscretions of some of its rank-and-file, and with an attorney as commissioner, that is entirely appropriate. But there have been instances, and will continue to be, in which the process of swift termination is an overdue process, and Bidwill and the Cardinals of late have been party to several of them.
Nowhere in the unofficial guidebook for NFL owners does it stipulate that a team has to wait for a jury deliberation. A player enters the league of his own volition, subject to a lot of esoteric rules, structures that don't regulate working stiffs in the real world. And by so doing, there is implicit agreement, an unspoken pact to abide by the paradigm in place. Just as implicit are the owners' rights in some cases, and Bidwill has opted not to take advantage of the fact that he is not only the guy who signs the paychecks, but also who decides when to stop signing them.
“ Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But fool me a third time, well, shame on all of us. ”
—Cardinals running backs coach Johnny Roland
Dangerous territory? Oh, there are attorneys a lot wiser than yours truly who probably will contend Bidwill has moved into a perilous position. But the Cardinals owner is in the business of entertainment, has just asked residents of the Valley of the Sun to invest in a new stadium for him, and that connotes a public trust. One can't, in good conscience, dip into the coffers of taxpayers and ticket patrons without a measure of quid pro quo.
OK, know, the fans of Phoenix and the surrounding area would trust Bidwill and his team a lot more if the Cardinals won a few more games. Even given our stance on Bidwill and his recent punitive actions, we're not so off-kilter as to attempt to defend the product he puts on the field, and the results it has produced most seasons.
The Cardinals, for years, have done a lot of things wrong. Agents detest dealing with them because of the petty elements they bring to nearly every negotiation. The franchise has hardly endeared itself to the locals with an action recently brought against Arizona State for revenues the Cardinals contend are owed them by the university.
That said, it remains Bidwill's right to decide what constitutes a "Cardinals sin" abhorrent enough to merit banishment.
When he first moved the team to the desert, Bidwill was given to wearing string-ties (to go with his ubiquitous and inexplicable safari jacket), perhaps in an effort to demonstrate he was an Ol' West wannabe. He has since reverted to the trademark bow-tie. But lately the neckwear he has most frequently broken out, unfortunately, is a noose to put around the necks of Cardinals transgressors.
Perhaps, in the latest instance, McKinley will be found innocent. But we've got a few familial sources in government places who contend that there is substantial evidence to the contrary. (An aside here: Oh, that those sources had whispered this to us before the Tuesday arrest, and provided ESPN.com a jump on the story. But we will deal with that oversight, uh, internally, as they like to say).
There are sure to be skeptics who will point to the fact it was relatively easy for the Cards to dump McKinley, an afterthought of a player, a four-year veteran who had touched the ball only five times from scrimmage and whose only notable accomplishments came on the special teams units. It would be a contention worth consideration, but an erroneous one, especially based on the last few years.
The Cardinals organization chose not to attempt to retain its premier player, wideout David Boston, after the 2002 season. And that decision was made in large part because of Boston's DUI arrest and a history of off-field excesses. So now the San Diego Chargers, who signed Boston as an unrestricted free agent earlier this spring, will have to fret that they invested millions in a player one weak moment away from a one-year suspension.
With a history of spousal abuse and anger management problems that are undeniable, even if his latest incident is ignored, Pittman was a time bomb that the Cardinals deemed too combustible a risk. So even though he led the team in rushing in consecutive years, Arizona made no attempt to keep him after the 2001 campaign, and he exited to Tampa Bay as a free agent.
Last week, the Cardinals dealt another tailback, former first-round selection Thomas Jones, to the Bucs. The most obvious reason was that Jones was a certifiable bust, at least to this point in his career, and the team signed Emmitt Smith to be its starter. But there was also the incident last year in which Jones claimed to have fractured his hand on a counter in his home, while answering the telephone. Cardinals management, justifiably so, never quite bought into that tale.
So the record suggests the Cardinals, and more pointedly Bidwill, have neither played favorites nor been particularly discriminating when meting out justice.
For some league observers, including us, the image of Billy Bidwill as a tough guy and self-proclaimed enforcer is a difficult one to mentally digest. But with his recent moves, and a clear disinclination now to heed the usual excuses for dubious behavior, the Cards owner might never again be viewed with the Tweedle-dum perceptions that have marked his lengthy stewardship.
This latter-day Bidwill may suddenly be nobody's fool. And there may suddenly be no one who ever gets the opportunity to fool him a second time.
